Pajero Owners Club of South Africa

Hello all.

I have not posted here yet although I have followed this forum with interest.

A bit about myself:


1. Name: Andre Roets

2. Birthday and Age: 47

3. Town & Country Of Residence: Pietermaritzburg

4. Home Language: English

5. Occupation/Business: Engineering/toolmaking-owner

6. Family Status: Got grandchildren

7. Membership Of Other 4X4 Clubs & Forums:

8. Current 4x4:2003 Pajero SWB GLS 3.5 V6

9. Current Modifications: Standard

10. Modifications On The Wish List: None. It does everything I need it for

11. Vehicle(s) On The Wish List: Gen 4 SWB V6

12. Previous 4x4s: 1968 Landrover 2a "Kidney masher" Still got it!

13. Last 3 Offroad Trips: Lesotho Katse dam from Sani pass

14. Favourite Destination:

15. Other Hobbies:

16. GPSr & Map Data Used: Garmin Nuvi

17. Rate Your 4X4 & Overlanding Experience: Reasonable




I have owned a Pajero now for close on 3 years and love it, despite a disasterous start which I now have the heart and courage to share.

After a great deal of research and hunting I eventually found a SWB 3.5 auto that suited my needs and my pocket. Pristine condition, 160000km and full service history. Driving it home from Pretoria to Pietermaritzburg confirmed in my mind I had a winner.

5000 km later the gear box disintegrated!! Yes, the bullet proof Invecs II.
A planetary gear set in the box cracked it's cage and sent bits throughout the works.
I was towing my caravan out of the remote Hella-Hella valley at the time - hard work for any vehicle - when 1st, 2nd, and 3rd ceased to exist.
4th and 5th were still there. I knew this was the end of the box so I took the decision to try and get us home. I managed to get the rig rolling enough to accept 4th and ploughed on. Thanks to the V6's sheer muscle and torque the rig made it home to the relief of the family.

To cut a long story short, Gearmax undertook the task of rebuilding the box. With hindsight I am very pleased I did not attempt this rebuild myself as the complexity and need for specialised equipment would have stopped me in my tracks. After 8 weeks and 29k later I had the vehicle back. The next 10 months saw the vehicle in and out of Gearmax for niggling slow gear change problems apparently related to faulty valve bodies supplied by the agents. Credit goes to Gearmax for their tenacity and diligence in sorting the problems out.

This episode is now 12 months behind me and I have regained my confidence in the vehicle.

This break down apparently resulted from the previous owner being negligent in ensuring that the vehicle came to a complete stop between engaging drive and reverse and vise-versa.

I thought I'd thought of everything when I bought the vehicle, but this one I could not see coming!

I love my Pajero. I have a new gearbox! I hold my thumbs!

Ouch

Glad you go it sorted. Must say that it is the first time I have heard that as a reason for a box to fail prematurely but I suppose it does put a lot of strain on components.

I wonder if there is any way in which one can test the wear induced by this before it gets to the point of failure?

Anyway, glad you got it sorted and hope that all will be well going forward.

CATS

Zabwan wrote: 4th and 5th were still there. I knew this was the end of the box so I took the decision to try and get us home. I managed to get the rig rolling enough to accept 4th and ploughed on. Thanks to the V6's sheer muscle and torque the rig made it home to the relief of the family.

I love my Pajero. I have a new gearbox! I hold my thumbs!

Hi Andre,

Firstly welcome to the forum.

I read the history of you and your Pajero and from all of it i only remember one thing when i were done reading....

IT GOT YOU HOME !!!
and you said it. Got to love the Pajero

first time I heard that. The box is electronically controlled.

The only thing that may fail due to user error is if you engage park while moving it may break the park gear pin but then the only damage is that park becomes a second neutral.

The electronics in the gearbox prevents user damage - I haven't tried it myself but the gearbox should just throw an error if you go from "D" at 100km/h in "R'. A stop and restart should clear it.

I suspect you may have been the one in a million suffering from a casting error at the time of manufacturing. The towing may have just been a little too much for the flaw in the cog(s).

The price you paid seems a bit steep though. What is the price of a new box?

All things mechanical are prone to failure.
Good design, manufacturing and maintenance will reduce (but never fully prevent) the incidence of failures.

Pajero transmission failures are few and far between.
We can only sympathize with owners who experience the failures.

(There are brands where transmission / clutch / injector failures are big probabilities. )

..... not to mention handbrake.

Thank you all for the replies and welcome.

The whole experience did come as a surprise to me as my research had highlighted the reliability of this auto box.

I accept that I am the one in a million, although I would have rather won the lotto

I did consider the possibility of a recon box, but decided better the devil I know. The repair bill did hurt though!

My next bit of maintenance is to be the cam belt and waterpump etc. May be I will do this one myself?

Be careful. The 3500 needs lots of stuff to be removed to get to the 4 cams. Get the timing wrong and you will bend valves or worse as the 3500 is an interference engine. The timing setup on them are slightly tricky. Do the tensioner at the same time.

Zabwan wrote: My next bit of maintenance is to be the cam belt and waterpump etc. May be I will do this one myself?

Why not?
There is plenty info and "How To" threads available on the web.

Just start a new thread and the members will walk you through it.